The Lessons of History
by StormyAngel12
Summary: Luke turned himself in, and Rey later followed suit. Centuries later, another Jedi prepares for his own confrontation with the Sith Emperor, but this time he hits an unexpected snag.


Long ago in a galaxy far, far away: a young man walked out of the city.

There was something special about this young man, despite the poverty of his dress. Some indefinable quality to the look in his eyes, or the confidence in his step, that would have a passerby noting him as somehow extraordinary. He walked calmly, and without any hurry to the front gate of the military complex. The stormtroopers standing at attention eyed him warily, fingering their blasters.

"I believe I'm the one you're looking for." The young man told them. Then he pulled the lightsaber from his belt and offered it to the nearest guard, hilt first.

There was a moment of stunned silence, the tableau frozen from sheer surprise, before the troopers moved. Shouted orders to get to his knees followed the confiscation of his weapon, and with the usual imperial efficiency, the young Jedi was bound and captured.

The guards were reinforced from within the base, then replaced with a full squad who escorted the young man inside. The young man whose face matched the billion credit bounty the Emperor had spread recently…for a live capture. A dead body came with an execution order. For whatever reason, the Emperor wanted this Jedi menace alive.

The prisoner was shoved into a prison cell, where he stated a demand to be taken to the Emperor. Unfortunately, that was just before he was summarily shot in the head.

* * *

"But sir," The young trooper asked his superior officer, whose blaster still smoked from the shot. "Didn't we have orders to bring him in alive?"

"We did." The older, more experienced trooper replied grimly. The young trooper glanced back at the smoking corpse. Definitely dead.

"I don't understand." He said.

"It's a strange but repeatedly demonstrated fact of history, son, that Jedi kill Sith." The old trooper sighed. "Palpatine. Snoke. Emperor Ren. All three of them led massive empires focused on bringing stability to the galaxy, with considerable success." Here the old trooper paused, then turned his gimlet gaze on the younger one. "What happened to them?"

"They were assassinated." The young trooper replied automatically, thinking back to his basic history lessons.

"By Jedi." The older one replied. "Each and every one of them had the captive Jedi brought directly to them. And do you know what aways happens next?"

"They're…assassinated?" The trooper replied, uncertain.

"They're not just assassinated." The old trooper snorted. "They're _taken to pieces_. The throne room is ruined. The guards are all slaughtered. The space station explodes. And the empire is thrown into chaos." He shook his head. "Somehow, despite all their power and skill, the Sith we often call Emperor remain blindly stubborn to this _one_ little fact: anytime they meet a Jedi in the seat of their power, they die."

"So…you're just trying to protect the Emperor!" The young trooper exclaimed in relief. "Oh thank goodness. Maybe he won't kill you—"

"Oh, we're going to die for this." The old trooper replied. Strangely enough, he sounded satisfied.

"We're…what?"

"Yeah, the Sith really aren't big on insubordination." He shook his head. "And old Emperor Kaito has a pretty strong temper. He'll execute everybody on the base."

"He…he will?" The young trooper seemed faint.

"It's what he did last time." The old trooper told him. "And…every other of the dozen or so times we've disobeyed this particular order. Not that it matters." His smile was both grim and satisfied. "This is one order the Emperor will never see fulfilled."

* * *

Author's Note: I was quite randomly struck by the fact that both Palpatine and Snoke's assassinations left no witnesses alive. Imagine your average Imperialist trying to deal with the fallout, confused with the chaos and wondering _what the hell happened?_ Because in no way was an assassination the expected outcome, but it just keeps happening! So in the distant future after history has repeated itself a few times, I could see some grizzled old soldier deciding to die for insubordination in order to forestall a chaotic civil war.

I also want to note that the perspective of the troopers is their own. The Empire(and First Order) in Star Wars is a terrible oppressive regime led by a mad cruel murderous tyrant, and by no means do I think the Jedi are wrong to bring them down.


End file.
